Engineers use AI to hunt Bitcoin miners as Russian ex-presidential hopeful’s son caught in crossfire

Russian power providers have a new weapon in their arsenal to stop illegal Bitcoin miners from stealing over $16.6 million worth of electricity per year: artificial intelligence.

That’s according to Boris Ebzeev, the head of Rosseti, Russia’s state-owned electrical power company, who told the Russian publication CNews that his firm is currently “exploring and testing entirely new approaches to combating illegal mining.”

“We are looking at implementing AI data analysis technology directly within smart meters themselves, or in portable devices we install alongside them,” Ebzeev said. “We are already using big data analysis and elements of artificial intelligence.”

However, as energy providers grow smarter, so too do Russia’s illegal crypto miners, who are finding new ways to evade detection and throw investigators off their trails.

Fighting back

Ebzeev conceded that the greatest challenges for investigators looking for signs of illegal crypto mining come when illicit miners set up shop in industrial sites.

“In these sites, access to electrical installations and metering units is limited, and the load is unevenly distributed,” he explained.

An even greater problem is the rise of “roving” crypto mining units, Ebzeev noted.

“It is now commonplace to see illegal miners use mobile mining centers that are the size of a trailer or shipping container,” Ebzeev said. “This lets operators change their illegal connection locations at the drop of a hat.”

But the Rosseti chief said that embedding new AI solutions in the smart meters of ordinary residents and commercial users will help engineers fight back.

“Our proprietary AI solution lets us analyse data streams from all types of electricity meters,” Ebzeev explained. “Its algorithms let us identify consumption anomalies, detect meter tampering, and monitor a huge range of statistics.”

He concluded that Rosseti subsidiaries are now creating “dedicated teams of specialists” who will operate new diagnostic equipment and analytical systems.

Over $1.5 million in damages

While power engineers continue to develop new ways to detect illegal miners, Russian criminals are intensifying their efforts to steal electricity from public grids.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Rosseti and the Federal Security Service, also known as the FSB, have shut down a sophisticated illegal crypto mining scheme that they think was masterminded by the son of a former Presidential candidate.

The newspaper said that one of the arrestees is Maxim Yatsun, the owner of a construction company and the son of former Russian presidential candidate Andrey Yatsun.

The FSB’s Chelyabinsk Oblast branch said it had detained four individuals suspected of stealing electricity worth over $1.5 million. Officers have charged the quartet with “fraud on an especially large scale.”

Officials say that between November 2024 and April 2025, the suspects “repeatedly” sent a local electricity supplier “forged documents, falsifying the volumes of electricity consumed” at their industrial facility, where they installed banks of crypto mining rigs.

Police sources told Kommersant that security forces had raided Maxim Yatsun’s home, and suspected that the mining rigs used at the site belonged to him.

Tim Alper is a news correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email at tdalper@dlnews.com.